Soccer for Cheney Stadium

Cheney Stadium will be the Sounders FC U23s’ home for two games in their coming Premier Development League season.

The games will mark soccer’s return to the stadium that has been the home to Triple-A baseball in Tacoma for more than half a century. The Tacoma Tides of the old American Soccer League played there in 1976, featuring such players as Pepe Fernandez and Bruce Arena.

“(The pitch) will probably run diagonally, with the party deck getting probably the best view of the 18-yard box and the goal on one end,” said Lane Smith, owner and CEO. “There will be (some infield dirt on the pitch) … but the rest of it is such nice grass, we’re going to go for it.”

The U23s games at Cheney will be May 30 against Vancouver and June 15 against Kitsap. Five other games will be played at Franklin Pierce High School, leaving one home game at a Pierce County venue to be determined.

“The multiple (home fields) are really to spread it around a bit because there are multiple bases of soccer,” Smith said. “No matter where we landed, there’s not just one area of soccer.”

Season tickets are available at www.sounders23.com. Individual-game tickets go on sale April 2.